Kyocera Duraforce Pro | Verizon | Black | 32 GB

The Kyocera DuraForce Pro for Verizon is a refreshing change of pace. It balances solid specs and performance with a competitive price, and includes a whole range of features you don't typically see on rugged phones, like a secondary wide-angle camera lens, wireless charging, a fingerprint sensor, dual-band Wi-Fi, and NFC. Rugged phones tend to share a similar form factor—big, heavy, black polycarbonate slabs. The DuraForce Pro doesn't really depart from this playbook, though Kyocera does make some effort by adding a few curves to the back and some different textures and ridges to the plastic.

The Pro has no less than eight buttons along the front and sides, to make navigation easier when the phone is wet or when you're wearing gloves. On the left side you'll find a volume rocker, above a red, ridged programmable button. The right side has a power button that doubles as a fingerprint sensor, a unique feature we haven't seen in many rugged phone asides from the pricier S7 Active. A clicky camera shutter is further down, letting you snap photos easily in landscape mode and underwater mode (the phone detects when it has been submerged and automatically disables the touch screen, letting you use the physical buttons to get around).

The bottom of the phone has a lanyard attachment loop (though a lanyard isn't included) and a micro USB charging port protected by a flap with a rubber stopper. The audio jack on the top edge is covered by a similar flap, next to which you'll find a speaker button. The back of the phone has two charging contacts near the bottom for compatibility with docks and multi-bay chargers. The phone features a crisp 5-inch, 1920 x 1080 IPS LCD with three backlit physical navigation buttons below. Text and images appear clearly, with good viewing angles, and outdoor visibility is excellent.

The screen itself is protected by Kyocera's Sapphire Shield, which covers the glass with a protective layer of scratch-proof sapphire. In testing, it showed no marks after being scratched with keys, coins, scissors, pins, a screwdriver, and even a knife. It also withstood several direct drops to the hard, rubberized floor from a height of five feet without any sign of damage.